Food Waste In America Essay

In the last several years, food waste has become an ever-growing issue in the United States. We are starting to recognize the significance of food waste and the impact it has on our economic, social, and environmental costs. Americans buy more food than they need, this is a commonly known fact. In the United States about 30-40 percent of the available food supply goes uneaten every year. In order to understand and eliminate food waste we must remember that food is the most powerful basic necessity for human beings.

In the Unites States alone there are 60 million metric tons of food waste a year; globally, a third of the food produced ends up in landfills and is never consumed. Food waste affects not only the world socially and economically, but also emits greenhouse gases. According to a report from the United Nations, food waste “...creates 3.3 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases annually, about 7 percent of the total emissions”. In some cities, food waste programs have begun to develop. The article highlights a particular program from Minnesota that is giving out grants to help recycle food. Although it is a step in the right direction, anti-waste groups such as “Wrap” believe that small changes aren’t going to make big changes, food waste needs to first be

Food waste is a global problem and the United States is one of the biggest offenders. According to recent statistics, “Every year, the United States throws away one-third of all the food it produces — 133 billion pounds of food. And grocery stores are responsible for tossing 10% of that food” (Jacobs). While this may seem like an insignificant percentage, the cause of this waste is due to egregious and inefficient practices perpetrated by larger retail grocery chains designed to drive revenue rather than efficiently use resources. Due to grocery store’s focus on revenue driving practices, stores contribute to food waste by providing misleading product expiration labeling, overstocking displays, and feeble attempts at distributing unused goods

This report analyzes the economic impacts of food waste in American schools and discusses the causes and implications of post-harvest food waste, and the ways in which food waste harms a school’s budget, by examining both quantitative and qualitative factors. A survey was given to obtain high school student opinions regarding food waste, and an experiment was conducted to examine the economic relationship between trayless dining and plate waste. The survey revealed that many students were not aware of the detrimental effects of food waste and were willing to change their eating behaviors to reduce the issue. The survey also revealed that the two biggest factors contributing to food waste are the taste of the food and the duration of time schools

The United States of America and a myriad of other countries are operating on a flawed food distribution system. Americans alone waste nearly thirty four million tons of food each year (Dominguez 29). However, it is difficult to believe this statistic when there are more than forty million Americans suffering for food insecurity, which is also known as hunger (Bloom 43). With the amount of food being wasted each year increasing, the amount of people suffering from hunger is also rising. Food waste is a practice causing millions of people to hungry, yet through the reuse and recycling of food, this trend can be reversed.

Every day I sit at lunch and watch person after person throw away perfectly good food. Even I am guilty of throwing away food I did not want or food I was “too full” to possibly eat. Someone will take a container of yogurt or a sandwich out of their lunch bag, decide they don’t want it, and proceed to toss it into the black, wheeled trash cans. What runs through my mind when I witness and experience these wasteful habits is that people don’t understand how much perfectly eatable food ends up in the trash can every day. Food waste does not only occur in schools, food waste occurs in multiple environments, such as restaurants, grocery stores, and every day households. Food waste comes in all different forms as well, whether it is whole containers of salvageable snacks or scraps of food capable of utilization as compost. People don’t completely understand the ample amounts of food wasted every day, every month, and every year. Because of this lack of awareness and knowledge, the government should provide educational programs regarding food waste and teach alternative disposal methods, such as composting or recycling, to the general public. The government should also instill food waste prevention programs to make sure people aren’t throwing away perfectly good food because portions are too large or from poor buying habits.

People throwing away food, allowing food to rot, and even something as simple as not completely eating an apple are examples of how food is wasted in America. Food waste appears to be nothing out of the ordinary because it is very easy for consumers to go out and buy themselves more food if needed. In contemporary society, there is a trend which shows a tremendous increase in the rates of people wasting food. We as a society in America lose about one thirds of the food that comes to us which ends up amounting to around 1.3 billion dollars worth of food. Industrialized nations have been known to waste more food that other nations like sub-Saharan Africa produce (Stewart 12). Food waste which represent unnecessary chemicals, land, and energy has become one of America’s biggest problems up to date. Through the loss of money, depreciation of food, and pollution, we are creating an unbalanced society.

There is a lot of food waste going on around us. Most of it goes to waste right under our noses from super markets and farms. In this paper I will go over how much the USA (United States of America) waste in food vs how much the UK (United Kingdom) wastes, how we can fix our waste habits, the impact on us/ cost of the waste, and how to make people aware of the waste that is going on. The UK wastes a total of “14.3 million tons of food per year” (Yeung) which makes you wonder how much does the USA waste?

Growing research shows steady increase in food waste throughout the globe. One largely contributing factor is food waste produced from the public schools. The amount of food wasted in schools, according to the USDA, has ranged between 10-37% of calories served (Buzby, J., Guthrie, J., 2002). It is difficult to compare public-school waste to global amounts due to the scarcity of specific data -- this would depend on region, economic status and additional factors associated with how and why food is wasted in schools. Having said that, this is a large enough problem that it is actively noticed and prompting intervention. With these numbers rising, food waste negatively impacts costs for the community, carbon emissions, water use and more.

In the last several years, food waste has become an issue of growing interest among activists, scientists, and consumers alike. We are starting to recognize the significance of food waste and the social, economic, and environmental costs accompanying it. Understanding and eliminating food waste is gradually becoming the aim of scientific study, governments, and nonprofit organizations. The article that I just read had many valid points. However, it missed the mark in creating an article that would appeal to many people and promote change. I believe that the article should have include global effects of food waste on the economy, the environment, and on social issues like poverty.

Americans throw away billions of pounds of food, worth billions of dollars and enough to feed millions of people each year. Wasted food is the single largest component of American landfills. Every year, around 40 percent of all food goes unconsumed in the United States. This amounts to Americans squandering as much as $218 billion annually growing, processing and transporting food that never gets eaten. That is a fairly large waste of resources considering all that freshwater and land, all that fertilizer and energy used was for nothing. ‘Washington Post’. Even Europe does a better job of curtailing food waste and food waste in Europe alone could feed 200 million hungry people! Food waste is often described as a “farm-to-fork” problem. Produce is lost in fields, warehouses, packaging, distribution, supermarkets, restaurants and fridges. Why? We purchase too many food products, our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and we buy what is not expected.

Around the world there is a very serious problem that most people do not care about or do not know of. That problem is that food waste is a selfish act that has been able to hide itself from being a serious issue in the eyes of the public for too long. We buy too much food to then only throw it away. The companies that sell it to us throw it away instead of giving it to people who need it. We have so many people in our country who are starving to death because they are misfortunate and can’t afford food. The amount of food we throw away could feed almost every homeless person in the United States. If we stop wasting food, eating unhealthy food, and fight against food scarcity we can stop our countries hunger and stop thousands of unnecessary deaths of people who can’t afford good or food at all. While food waste is the problem it can also become our answer by us putting our so-called waste to better use.

Imagine a piece of land around 24 times the size of California dedicated for farming crops and food. Now imagine all those food being thrown away and not eaten by people who are too full to care about the people going hungry every day. Not only does society ignore the problem of food waste, it constantly contributes to it. According to an article, “Curbing Food Waste Is Good for Business, the Environment, and Society”, 2.5 billion acres of land used for farming to grow food are wasted every year or about 1.3 billion tonnes (Lewis). Now think about the amount of food 18,000 times the weight of the eiffel tower gone with every 1 out of 9 facing starvation. Where do all the food go? Unfortunately, instead in hungry stomachs, it goes into our landfills which then produces methane contributing to the uprising issue of global warming (Dana). United States citizens need to reduce the amount of food waste by educating younger children to prevent poor habits and charge customers based on the amount of food wasted.

Food waste is a huge problem most Americans are completely oblivious too. According to a United States Department of Agriculture report, 133 billion pounds of food went unused in 2010. While animal products like meat and dairy being towards the top of the list, added up to $105 billion of wasted food. ( Waste Not, Want not 26) While worldwide about one-third of all food produced is either lost or gone to waste which adds up to about 1.3 Billion tons of waste.

The United Nations estimates that one in nine people in the world do not have access to sufficient food to lead a healthy lifestyle (“The Environmental Impact of Food Waste According”, 2016) and nearly one-third of the food produced in the world is wasted and lost for various reasons. Food loss and waste can cause a huge economical loss and cause severe damage to the world. Food loss happens especially on the manufacturing degree due to natural calamities, loss of proper infrastructure and negative practices while food waste normally happens when people purchase food, food that has expired and people who intentionally discards edible food. When food is wasted and goes